A moving roar of solidarity with Ukraine filled the Commons … even Sir Lindsay Hoyle tore up his rulebook

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“We generally do not allow applause in this chamber”, explained Hoyle, “but on this occasion the House quite rightly wants to demonstrate our respect and support for your country” – though the Speaker just about managed to refrain from joining in the applause himself The Ukrainian ambassador beamed down at the cheering MPs, clasping his hands in gratitude for this moving breach of the parliamentary procedure.

Johnson and Starmer initially traded blows via stirring language. “The vice is tightening”, cried the PM, in his best Churchill impersonator mode, promising “ineluctable” pressure on the Putin regime. “They dip their hands in the blood of Putin’s war”, retorted Sir Keir, going full throttle on the oligarchy and their cosy ties to London. Why not sanction Roman Abramovich directly, he wanted to know?

“Mr Speaker, it’s not for me to comment on individual cases”, retorted the PM, deploying the Sue Gray defence. But this week the two sides found much more to agree on. Even Ian Blackford’s usual mixture of Westminster-bashing and Edinburgh moral-high-ground felt more muted than usual.

Chris Bryant, no stranger to a spot of Commons am-dram, solemnly invoked the sacrifices of fallen MPs in defending “plucky Belgium” in 1914 and Poland in 1939. Bryant professed himself “ashamed” of the British response to Ukraine in 2022; adding “we’re not even guaranteeing [their] territorial integrity.” But these seemed odd precedents to cite; implying that guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity might now spark World War III. The sheer hyperbole helped extract the sting from his rather more pertinent questions about sanctions and dodgy Russian money – which the PM duly ignored .

Even in the odd spectacle of a newly consensual PMQs, some things never change.

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